FDIC: Share Of ‘Unbanked’ Households In U.S. Declines For Third Straight Year

October 26, 2018CrainMedia

The number of Americans without a savings or checking account fell for the third consecutive year in 2017, according to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation’s biennial national survey of so-called “unbanked” and “underbanked” households.

“The good news is that our nation’s banking system is serving more American households than ever before. The bad news is that even as the overall number of people who are unbanked has declined, 8.4 million households continue to lack a banking relationship,” said FDIC Chairman Jelena McWilliams.

The percentage of U.S. households that were unbanked in 2017 was 6.5%, the lowest rate recorded since the FDIC began conducting the survey in 2009. That number was down from 7% in 2015, and significantly below a high of 8.2% in 2011. That tally equates to 14.1 million adults in 8.4 million households not having a bank account, according to the survey. MORE